People seem to talk more over their mobile phones andstay on the internet longer during political turmoil, industry sources said.
Latest figures by the country’s largest mobile operator, Grameenphone, reveal that at least 7% of voice calls increased in the first quarter of this year, compared to the last quarter of 2012.
Average minutes per user (AMPU) per month stood at 246 minutes in the January-March quarter, which is the highest compared to the previous six quarters. In the last quarter, October-December 2012, AMPU was 230 minutes only.
Industry insiders said that in the last few years, trends in AMPU have been decreasing, as most users used multiple SIMs.
However, in the last few months, with accelerating political unrest and a spate of hartals, AMPU has increased.
Analysts believe the reasons behind the AMPU increase may be that people have more time to chat or browse as they cannot go out during hartals, or they get work done online from home. People are also likely to discuss the ongoing political situation more, and use their phones or the internet to get the latest news.
“We are very scared about the current political situation, so we need to call our homes more frequently. And we need to get the news, so we visit on-line newspapers and social sites like facebook,” said Mahabub Zaman, a banker.
“During political turmoil, people talk much indeed. On a particular hartal day, people can talk more,” Vivek Sood, chief executive officer of Grameenphone, said at a press conference on April 25 while declaring the company’s first quarter information.
“Political activity is positive for our telecom business,” Fridtjof Rusten, Grameenphone’s chief financial officer, said.
“No doubt voice calls are increasing, but I can’t give figures. We find that our network is always busy” Md Mujibur Rahman, managing director of the state-run Teletak told Dhaka Tribune.
On the other hand, Mehbub Chowdhury, head of the country’s oldest mobile operator, City Cell, told the Dhaka Tribune:
“People certainly talk much during political turmoil, and operators can earn more revenue. But that’s not true for every operator.”
As half of the country’s mobile subscribers belong to Grameenphone, their data reflects half the user information, Mehbub said.
Text message (SMS) figures also increase significantly during hartals, a high official of Bangladesh Telecommunication Regulatory Commission said, but he could not give exact numbers.
Moreover, use of internet bandwidth also increased 45 percent in the nine months from June 2012 to March 2013, according to the state-owned Bangladesh Submarine Cable Company Ltd (BSCCL).
“The recent political turmoil has helpedto increase bandwidth usage,although the growth was very low before December,” a BSCCL source said, requesting anonymity.